The Carolina Hurricanes squandered a one-goal lead late in the third period and went 0 for 6 on the power play in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks at PNC Arena Friday night.
Rookie forward Andrei Svechnikov scored the Canes’ (12- 9-4) lone goal, and goalie Curtis McElhinney played a strong game in net, stopping 27 of 29 Ducks (13-10-5) shots. The Hurricanes finished the game 0 for 6 on the power play and 3 for 3 on the penalty kill.
“I liked our start,” head coach Rod Brind’Amour said.“The power play needed to get one; that puts it away. There were a couple guys I wasn’t real happy with; they didn’t come to the party. But for the most part our D battled in our end and our goalie was good again tonight. He gave us a chance.”
1:15 into overtime, Ducks forward Ryan Getzlaf was sprung for a clear-cut breakaway from the blue line in, and finished top shelf to win the game.
“Obviously he is a skilled player,” McElhinney said. “He can make things happen so [he made] a nice move to get it up over my glove. Those three on three situations are tough. You’ve got to stick to your guy; they made a great play and he picked up a great pass”
The Ducks tied the game on a fluke play with 3:50 to play in the game; the puck bounced up in the air off defenseman Calvin de Haan, and Anaheim forward Pontus Aberg batted it out of the air just below the crossbar to make it 1-1.
“You can call it a gut punch,” defenseman Justin Faulk said. “We didn’t necessarily have the game in the second and third period to win. The first period looked great and everything. We come back with five shots or something like that in the second and spend a lot of time in our zone and give up a lot of chances. We didn’t follow up that first period like we needed to.”
The Hurricanes had plenty of chances to increase their lead and put the Ducks away, but could not find a finishing touch on any of their six power plays, including two in the third period that came before the tying goal.
“We didn’t get in very clean on the entry I don’t think,” Faulk said. “Seemed a little out of sync there. That’s really the only opportunity you have to be in sync it seems like. To make sure you’re all on the same page and like I said we looked good on the first one maybe and another shot or two on the third but it wasn’t good enough. There was some sloppy play on the power play that can’t happen.”
The Canes nearly took a 1-0 lead with about four minutes left in the first on a shorthanded breakaway for forward Warren Foegele, but Ducks goalie John Gibson, who made 33 saves on 34 shots stopped him, and the follow-up chance for forward Jordan Martinook as well.
“He made some nice saves,” Brind’Amour said. “I mean obviously in the first period we should have, in a perfect world, probably been up by a couple. We had a real nice start to the game and then he made a couple breakaway saves.”
Carolina did jump in front with four-on-four goal from Svechnikov with one minute left in the opening frame; he took a pass from defenseman Dougie Hamilton at the right circle and zipped a shot through Gibson’s five-hole to make it 1-0.
Forward Phil di Giuseppe got a golden chance to make it 2-0 early in the third period with a clear-cut breakaway, but Gibson flashed the leather on his backhand try to keep it a one-goal game.
The Ducks nearly tied the game on a power play with eight minutes and change to play, but Getzlaf rifled a shot off McElhinney’s glove and the post. While the Canes could have put the game away with a power-play goal, a perfect penalty kill was a bright spot on special teams.
“[The penalty killers] are doing a great job,” McElhinney said. “Obviously they are disrupting a lot of stuff right now and getting some key blocks.”
The Canes will hit the road for a three-game California swing after this one, starting Sunday night against the Los Angeles Kings.
Right wing Andrei Svechnikov attempts to score against Anaheim Ducks goalie John Gibson in the last few minutes of the third period on Friday, Nov. 30. Anaheim scored in the third period to tie the game and force overtime, where they eventually scored again to beat the Hurricanes 2-1.
